German populists support democracy and the EU: study

A significant number of Germans support populist ideas, according to a new survey, but their views are moderate and most are pro-EU and pro-democracy.

Around 1,600 German voters were asked to answer multiple-choice questions as part of a Bertelsmann Foundation study. Almost 30 percent were found to have populist views and 34 percent partial populist views.

"What surprised us is that many of those categorized as populists think the membership of Germany in the EU is a good thing," said Christina Tillmann, director of Bertelsmann's Future of Democracy program.

Its definition of populism was being anti-establishment and believing that the political establishment should directly reflect the will of the people. A slight majority of Germans were found to be frustrated with the way democracy works, but there was overwhelming support for democracy as a political system.

According to the research, Christian Democrat voters were the least likely to hold populist views (40 percent), while half of Social Democrat and the Left party voters were dubbed populists. Sixty percent of supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany fell into the populist category, according to Bertelsmann.